


Distractions

by quantumoddity



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cute, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Pets, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 09:01:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7751476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Please don’t be mad?” she asked quietly. <br/>“Oh god,” Alex groaned. </p>
<p>Alex and Eliza raise a kitten. This is nothing but self-indulgent fluff (because this tag deserves some cuteness, god dammit) and I hope you like it as much as I liked writing it!</p>
<p>Comments/feedback are appreciated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distractions

Alex wasn’t used to being distracted; it wasn’t something he’d ever had to deal with until Eliza Schuyler. God, she wasn’t even anywhere near him, he was practically alone in the library, but the thought of her was enough to still his pen. He knew he should be focusing on his essay; he only had tonight to finish it and there was no way in hell Professor Eacker was going to give him another extension (‘It’s not my fault you take on more classes than anyone with sense would, Hamilton’). But every time he tried to focus on the progress of the revolutionary war and the impact it had on the formation of the government, he could only think of the way Eliza had smiled at him over breakfast that morning, a smile that had been enough to almost stop his heart.

It had only gotten worse now they’d started sleeping together. It had been a little under a fortnight since they’d given in, a messy but achingly beautiful discovery. And each night since then (and a fair few early mornings and hastily snatched hours in the afternoon) had been given over to further exploration, gently pushing boundaries and testing limits, learning as much about themselves as they were about each other. Alex had definitely refined some new skills; just last night he’d got her to orgasm from his hand and voice alone, simple twists and flexes of his long fingers between her soft lips and a unconstrained stream of utter filth whispered into her ear and she’d been utterly lost, gasping and moaning and whimpering, grinding her hips against him and begging him to never stop, his name sounding like a prayer in her strained, high voice. He’d pulled back just a little, hesitated before he finished her, teasing, but he’d paid handsomely for that with a hickey the size of a silver dollar on his collarbone. He’d tried to cover it with a jacket but it hadn’t been enough. Herc and Laff had still been flinging lewd jokes over their shoulders as they’d left him to his work about twenty minutes ago. But God the noise she’d made when he’d finally let her come, the way she looked at him, the promise of revenge glittering in her eyes. He’d been stiff when he’d got up this morning.

Alex realised how hot his face had gotten and how he hadn’t written a single word in about twenty minutes. He glanced around a little guiltily, though no one else was mad enough to still be in the library at this hour, no one but him.

“Dammit Eliza,” he muttered under his breath exasperatedly, though he couldn’t stop the gleeful grin on his face.

Another hour, he told himself, shaking his head a little to try and clear it. Another hour and he’d give up and go back to Eliza’s dorm, waking her up from the nap she’d inevitably be taking (it was eleven at night after all and she wasn’t good at staying up if she didn’t have a considerable quantity of vodka in her system) and lose himself in her. Sleep was for the weak and he’d been thinking about incorporating some of those scarves she had hanging up in her wardrobe into the night’s events. He hoped she was good at knots.

“Alex!”

He blinked, looking up from his notebook. Had he imagined that or-

No, there she was. Eliza was hurrying towards him, dodging desks and bookcases, looking around furtively like she was expecting trouble. She was wearing one of his hoodies, one that was already big on him; on her she was practically swimming in it. She was walking oddly, a little hunched over, like she was holding her stomach. Looking at her, it was obviously raining outside.

“Alex!” she hissed again, dropping into the chair opposite him, her eyes a little frantic.

“Hey there, angel,” he smiled, a little nervously. He was getting pretty good at reading her and she was definitely up to something.

“I need your help,” she whispered, not even skipping a beat, not even returning his greeting.

“With what…Eliza, is everything okay?”

His girlfriend gave the room a sweeping glance, as if making one hundred percent sure that they were alone, “Sorry, I had to sneak past the librarian on the front desk to get in, don’t know if he saw me-“

“Ah, is this the part of the relationship where you tell me about your criminal past?” Alex joked weakly, “cos if you want to do the whole Bonnie and Clyde thing-“

“What? Look, I couldn’t sleep so I went for a run in the park and near the gate there was this cardboard box and there was a noise from it, like a squeaking or, or like a crying as I went past so I stopped and looked and-“

“Whoa, whoa, babe, slow down and take a breath,” Alex interrupted, putting a hand on her shoulder.

There was a pause but the gap was filled by an almost inaudible mewling, coming from the pocket of the hoodie. Alex looked down then back up at Eliza, raising his eyebrows. She smiled sheepishly.

“Eliza, what the hell have you done?” he asked flatly.

Meekly, she extracted one of her hands from the depths of his hoodie, unfurling her delicate fingers to reveal a miniscule, very damp, very bedraggled, trembling kitten.

“Please don’t be mad?” she asked quietly.

“Oh god,” Alex groaned.

 

The emergency vet wasn’t very busy, given that it was slowly approaching midnight. Alex slouched on one of the hard, plastic waiting room chairs, his expression thunderous.

He wasn’t one for animals. Where he’d grown up, the only creatures were strays, mangy dogs and vicious alley cats that had to be dodged carefully when walking around the town to avoid scratches, bites or any number of diseases. The whole idea of inviting them indoors, feeding them and letting them on the furniture, calling them pets was completely alien to him.

But Eliza had asked. So he’d driven her out here in the dead of night, abandoning his work. Professor Eacker was going to murder him.

Eliza emerged from one of the examination rooms, carrying something in a box with air holes along the side. She saw his expression, which he’d tried to soften but he’d always been terrible at hiding what he felt. She worried her bottom lip with her teeth as she approached.

“The vet says she was probably abandoned in the park, she’s got no identification at all and it looks like she’s been on her own for a few days. She’s only two months old, way too young to be away from her mother and she’s really sick and malnourished. The vet’s not sure she’ll make it.”

“So…” Alex drew out the word, asking Eliza to fill in the blank. He had a feeling what she was going to say and he didn’t like it.

Eliza’s eyes turned defiant, “So she’s coming home with us. We’re going to make her better.”

Alex sighed, “Right.”

 

Alex had thought that maybe, after he’d gotten some sleep, he’d feel a little less irritated. But there wasn’t going to be any sleep that night.

It turned out that, after all the mud and dirt had been carefully sponged away, the kitten was a sandy brown colour, with filmy hazel eyes. It was also incredibly, painfully thin and trembled constantly. Eliza sat up with the thing all night, coaxing it into her lap, feeding it milk through a tiny little dropper at regular intervals, petting and soothing it as its tiny heart and lungs worked furiously to keep it alive. The thing kept slipping into unconsciousness, going terrifyingly limp and Eliza would have to pull it back, waking it up, pushing it to drink more.

“Are you going to get some sleep?” Alex sighed some time around three in the morning. Because Eliza was awake, he was awake. Of course.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, her thumb gently caressing the top of the little kitten’s head, though she had to stifle a yawn as she said it, “Vet said these next few hours are going to be critical.”

Alex frowned, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hands. He knew Eliza could be stubborn; that once she’d set her mind to something it was hard to shake her off. He actually really liked it. He found it endearing. But still, all the determination in the world might not be enough here; a lost cause was a lost cause.

“Look, angel,” he murmured, sitting up and crawling over to where she sat on the end of her bed, kneeling beside her, “There might be nothing you can do. You’ve tried hard and its admirable, it really is, but you might have to accept that it might not work out. I don’t want you to get too upset if it doesn’t. The vet said-“

Eliza turned to face him, her eyes hard, her heart shaped face set in such a way that he knew well this was a debate he was going to lose.

“You sleep if you want Alex. I’m not giving up just because it’s past my bedtime,” she said forcefully, her voice a little sharper than she’d intended.

Alex blinked. His Eliza had never spoken to him like that before.

She relented almost immediately, “I’m sorry. I just…I’m just…”

“I know,” Alex said quietly before she could finish. He didn’t ever want her to have to apologise to him, he thought as he reached out and put a hand on her head, letting her lean into him, “I know.”

Eliza Schuyler cared. She cared a lot, selflessly, a concept both unfamiliar and a little scary to Alex. She wasn’t the sort of person who gave up on lost causes.

He guessed (hoped) that included him.

 

Eliza didn’t go to classes next morning, giving Alex something of an excuse to play hooky too.

“You sure?” Eliza had said a little incredulously as the clock hands ticked closer and closer to seven, the time Alex would usually be staggering out of the door, having hastily located all of his clothes that would have been flung around her dorm room, his arms full of papers. Last Wednesday, he hadn’t been paying enough attention and had come back to her on the night, red in the face, admitting that he’d spent the full day wearing a pair of her pants instead of his boxers. Eliza had screamed with laughter and broke her promise not to tell her sisters in ten minutes.

But today he only shrugged, “If Eacker can’t see me, he can’t kill me.”

So he was sent out on a mission for breakfast while Eliza stayed cross-legged on her bed, fighting to keep the little animal curled up in her lap alive. By the time he returned with coffee and pancakes, a triumphant smile was plastered on her tired, drawn face.

“Alex, look!” she cried the minute he’d crossed her threshold. She picked up the kitten’s tiny form, balancing it delicately on its spindly legs. The little thing managed to walk between her two hands, more than a little unsteady but it managed none the less. It gave a surprisingly hearty mew as it settled against her left palm. Eliza turned to Alex and she looked so goddamn happy he couldn’t help but smile.

“We’ll take her back to the vets later today but she’d getting so much stronger, I think she’s going to be okay!”

Alex sat down heavily in Eliza’s chair with a yawn, rolling his eyes, “Confirming what I always thought.”

“Huh?”

“That you’re a miracle worker,” he chuckled.

 

Alex had thought that that was going to be the end of it. They’d saved the cat’s life, hooray and all that, and now they could go on with their lives.

Apparently, he was wrong.

Eliza had asked him to watch the thing while she went out to the store, not taking no for an answer, ignoring the unhappy expression on his face. So he set to work at Eliza’s desk (remarkably cleaner and more organised that his own), trying to salvage his essay, hoping that the little fuzz ball would stay asleep curled up on the bed and far away from him. The vet had said a few days fending for itself in the park had resulted in hoards of fleas and worms and though she’d given it some medicine, the thought hadn’t exactly endeared the thing to Alex.

The kitten had other ideas, though. He’d been scribbling away for about twenty minutes, just getting into his usual frantic rhythm that meant, if he had his way, he’d be there for another three hours. But suddenly, the piece of paper was tugged away, his pen skating a thick blue line across the bottom half.

“What the fuck? How on earth did you get up here?” Alex exclaimed irately, his head swinging up to confront the kitten who was toying with the edge of his note pad, gnawing at it with teeth like little thorns.

He groaned; no way was he getting his fingers anywhere near that. He tried to fend it off with his pen, nudging it a little further up the desk where it wasn’t about to consume his genius. But the kitten seemed to interpret this as a challenge, swiping at it playfully with a growl. It had certainly gotten its strength back after a night and day of Eliza’s careful attention and seemed to want to channel all of it towards annoying Alex.

“Oh come on,” he sighed, trying to stop himself cringing back from something that was barely bigger than an apple, “I don’t need this.”

It took a lot of syking himself up and insisting out loud that he was a member of this planet’s dominant species and that a tiny little scrap of fluff wasn’t going to get the better of him, but Alex scooped up the kitten and bundled it back onto the bed.

“Stay there. Go play with some string or something, whatever cats do,” he tried to sound commanding but the kitten just blinked its big eyes dolefully at him.

He turned back to his work, wondering if his professor would accept ‘a kitten ate my homework’ as an excuse. Doubtful.

It took another ten minutes before his peace was shattered again, this time by the kitten choosing to attack his left sock of all things. Alex stifled a yelp as he felt claws like little needles digging into his toes, pulling his knees to his chest. The kitten only blinked at him again with an accusatory mew, as if asking why Alex had interrupted its game.

“You little shit,” he said incredulously, glaring down at it, “I liked you better when you were comatose.”

The little thing tipped its head quizzically to one side. Eliza claimed he did that when he was confused. That fact didn’t save the kitten from being deposited back on the bed.

Next time, it was the sleeve of Alex’s shirt it pounced on. Then it was the pen again. Then it tried to snatch some water out of the glass Eliza had left in front of him before she’d left. Each new transgression landed it back on the bed though for increasingly short intervals. With each turn, Alex’s blood pressure climbed higher and higher. It was getting almost comical, like something out of Charlie Chaplain, though he was far from laughing. He glared at it fiercely, kneeling in front of the bed, putting his face close.

“You and me are never going to be friends,” he told it darkly.

It swiped at a loose strand of his hair that had escaped his bun, taking it in its mouth.

“Little shit,” he repeated, narrowing his eyes.

Eliza picked a good time to return, having to kick the door in given that her arms were full.

“Aw, you two making friends?” she grinned happily.

Alex elected to say nothing, instead scrambling up to take the bags off of her. That’s when he noticed what was in them. Two bags of kitten food, a small cushioned bed, a bowl, a few brightly coloured toys that jangled. A bright blue collar. Oh no.

“Um, Eliza?” he asked, his eyebrows rising.

“Hmm?” she replied from where she was kneeling on the bed, holding the kitten to her chest, petting it delightedly.

“We don’t have a cat, Eliza,” Alex pointed out.

Her beautiful face turned confused, as if he was making a joke that she didn’t quite get, “Ah, quick update then, we do now. We rescued her, we’re not just turning her over to a shelter!”

“ _You_ rescued it,” Alex corrected, setting the bags down, “I was merely an accomplice.”

“Her, Alex,” Eliza reminded him pointedly, cradling the kitten who snuggled into her chest happily, “Well then, I have a cat now. And you’re an accomplice cat owner, if you want to be pedantic.”

Alex looked at her exasperatedly, “You live in college dorms, Eliza! How are you going to keep a kitten?”

“It’s Easter break in another week, I’ll take her home with me, train her, and then when we come back, she’ll just sleep while I’m in class, no bother, it’s what cats do. The cleaners like me anyhow, they won’t mind,” she said simply, as if it was obvious, as if she’d got it all worked out.

“You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?” he sighed a little too bitterly, his exhaustion catching up with him.

Her eyes narrowed and she stood up, the kitten still resting perfectly contentedly in her arms, “Alex, what exactly is your problem here?”

“I don’t like cats Eliza!” he cried, flinging his arms in the air, “I don’t like any animals! Have I not made that clear?”

She considered this, putting the kitten down, setting it (her) back on the bed where it curled up into a tiny, perfect, furry ball. She approached her exasperated boyfriend, winding her arms around his waist, pulling him close.

“But you like me, don’t you?” she said softly, smiling gently, pressing her body against his.

“I…uh…what?” Alex stammered, a little taken aback by the sudden tonal shift.

“You like me enough to give me enough time to prove that this is a good thing? To let me show you that the two of you can be friends?”

Alex blinked, starting to catch up. “You minx,” he gasped, trying to sound accusatory but it was difficult with a smile tugging at his lips.

“It’ll all be fine, Alex, I know it will,” Eliza told him with perfect confidence.

He opened his mouth to argue but all he could manage was a tired sigh. She’d won; they both knew it.

“I never knew you had it in you to be such a manipulative temptress,” he joked, accepting his defeat with dignity.

Eliza smiled, eyes glittering, “Help me set up her bed and I can show you how much of it I have in me. If you’re not too tired.”

Amazing how all the exhaustion magically drained from his body with those few words.

 

And so Alex discovered just how far he was willing to go to make Eliza happy. Pretty damn far, as it happened.

The morning sun had crept under the curtains and snuck onto Alex’s sleeping face, right across the eyes. He winced and groaned as consciousness took hold of him way too early for his liking on a Saturday, the single day in the week he allowed himself off.

But it wasn’t all that bad. He shifted and sighed, wrapping his arms around Eliza’s waist who was pleasingly close thanks to their insistence on fitting two people in a single bed. He rested his head on her chest and entwined his legs with hers, her heartbeat a lovely sound to wake up to. With his dark hair tickling her nose, it wasn’t long before she was awake too, her body flowing to fit his embrace perfectly.

“Morning,” he murmured, voice heavy.

“Morning,” she replied sleepily but happily, extracting her hand from underneath the duvet and laying it on his head, smoothing down his bed head.

Alex sighed contentedly, turning his head so her could softly kiss her collarbone, “Once we’re awake enough, we’re having sex, yeah?”

Eliza laughed, the movement of her chest jostling him but the sound was more than worth it, “Make me a cup of tea and then we’ll see.”

“Of course, my love,” he grinned, squirming out of her arms and the covers, eager to please her (and also to get to the sex).

He made for the top of her drawers, which groaned with her very impressive mug collection. He knew which one was her favourite (the one he’d given her for her birthday, obviously).

“Alex!” Eliza cried suddenly, as he made for the door towards the flat’s shared kitchen.

“Huh?”

“Put some damn clothes on, you idiot!”

Alex looked down and his eyebrows shot up, “Oh.”

Eliza shook her head helplessly at her boyfriend, hastily grabbing some clothes to make himself decent, and burrowed down under the still warm covers, her whole body shaking with supressed giggles.

“You’re lucky I love you,” she laughed.

Alex stopped, half in half out of his boxers. He looked at her, eyes glittering, a goofily crooked grin on his face, “What was that?”

“You heard me,” she muttered, pulling the blanket over so Alex couldn’t see how much she was blushing, she was still getting used to saying that to someone.

Alex was still getting used to hearing her say it without wanting to cry.

Almost the instant the door closed behind him, the kitten unfurled herself from her bed, stretched languidly and hopped up onto the bed, taking full advantage of the warmth Alex had left behind him.

“Morning, Poppy,” Eliza smiled, reaching out to scratch behind those chewed up little ears, earning herself a delighted purr, “You know Alex doesn’t like you on the bed.” Poppy didn’t budge from where she’d curled up on the other pillow and Eliza certainly wasn’t going to make her.

The little kitten had really grown in the weeks since she’d taken up residence. She’d filled out and lengthened into a gangly tangle of overly big paws and too long legs, tripping and stumbling whenever she attempted anything more than a trot. But her ribs could no longer be seen through her skin so Eliza didn’t care how many books or cups got knocked over as she padded around the dorm.

So girl and cat both dozed contentedly until the door creaked open again, signalling Alex’s return, followed by a soft thud as he set the mug down on the desk within Eliza’s reach once she deigned to sit up. She was about to roll over and pull him towards her for a kiss of thanks when disaster struck.

A combination of him still being half asleep and Poppy being quite small meant Alex hadn’t noticed her encroaching on his pillow space. So when he’d carelessly collapsed onto the bed without thinking, right down on the exact space the little cat was currently occupying, there had been a conflict of interest that involved a loud yowl, an even louder scream and Alex crashing onto the floor.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” he yelled, more surprised than angry to find his legs suddenly above his head (there was less space that you’d think between the bed and the desk).

Poppy hissed indignantly.

Eliza had to choke back laughter; well aware it wouldn’t go down well.

“You okay, Alex?” she asked once she’d got herself under control, poking her head over the side of the bed.

His face was cold, “Do I look okay, Eliza?”

“Okay, fair enough,” she allowed, “Was a bit of a stupid question.”

She got to her knees so she could reach down and help him stagger back to his feet. Once righted, he realised something wet was trickling down his shoulder. He reached up and found the scratch marks on the side of his neck that were oozing blood.

“I’m bleeding!” he yelped incredulously, his voice raised a good few octaves, too high for someone who had seen military service, who was as tough as he claimed to be, “That thing made me bleed!”

‘That thing’ was currently crouched behind Eliza, sulking, fur still sticking up.

“Well, you did sit on _her_ ,” she said quietly, putting gentle emphasis on the pronoun Alex kept forgetting.

Her boyfriend glared.

“But she is sorry,” Eliza said hurriedly, “Come here, let me see.”

A few minutes of Eliza fussing over him and Alex was somewhat placated. As he sat cross-legged on the bed while she carefully positioned a Band Aid over the war wound, Poppy came slouching over and hopped onto Alex’s lap before he could say no.

“Oh, see? She’s apologising,” Eliza smiled as the kitten swiped at the strings of Alex’s hoodie.

“Oh really,” Alex was unconvinced, folding his arms and still looking wary.

“Come on,” Eliza wheedled, putting her chin on his shoulder, “Be gracious.”

He rolled his eyes despairingly but she only raised her eyebrows, waiting. With a heavy sigh, he relented and freed one hand, gingerly letting it hover over the kitten, approaching in hesitant increments. He petted her the way someone would pet a hand grenade.

“Don’t be such a baby, Alex,” Eliza teased gently, “You never mind when _I_ scratch you.”

Alex blushed a little, “That’s different!”

Eliza grinned and kissed his jaw fleetingly, “Care to demonstrate? I mean, you did make me a cup of tea technically, so…”

Alex bit his lower lip in anticipation.

“Happily…well, as soon as your cat gets off me.”

 

Alex really preferred working in Eliza’s room, even when she wasn’t there. It wasn’t packed to the rafters with books and papers the way his was and actually felt lived in rather than just slept in for convenience. The only issue was all the plants attracted bees so the windows needed to be kept shut.

Eliza was off on one of her runs (he’d quickly abandoned the idea of him going with her after the first time) so he was free to stretch out on the bed, his ancient laptop balanced on his stomach, clattering away at the keys that were practically worn down to nothing, his fingers close to a blur.

He was deeply engrossed, working at a pace and intensity that would have anyone who didn’t know him worried, when he stopped to take a glug of water and realised that there was an unusual warm weight on his outstretched legs. Frowning, he lifted his laptop to see Eliza’s cat (Poppy, as she kept insisting when he’d deliberately refer to her as ‘it’) sleeping soundly on his legs like he was some sort of human mattress.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, “You little shit, how long have you been there?”

The little cat raised her head, blinking sleepily, a definite look of bemusement in her hazel eyes. Even Alex could see there was no way she was moving.

“We only pretend to like each other when Eliza’s around,” he reminded her coldly.

Poppy gave what was clearly an indignant meow and settled back into Alex’s old ratty sweatpants, reaching out and kneading the material with her paws. Wincing as those tiny claws nipped his shins, Alex started to move to shake her off but something stopped him. He remembered the other day when Poppy had been digging her claws into Eliza’s jumper and he’d asked how the hell she put up with it. Eliza had just smiled and said she’d once read that cats only did that when they felt completely safe and happy. And now the little thing was doing it with him.

That was actually quite a nice thought.

Alex set back to his work, trying to sound sullen, “Fine then, you little shit. Whatever.”

 

“It’s freezing in here, it’s only because she’s warm!” Alex protested vociferously one day when Eliza got in from class to find her boyfriend at the desk with Poppy draped around his shoulders like an old fashioned stole.

Eliza just grinned and ruffled his hair as she crossed the room.

 

Eliza pulled the coat around her tightly but it didn’t stop her shivering in the night air. The mini skirt and tank top she was wearing definitely hadn’t been designed to wear at three in the morning while looking for a missing cat. She was tramping through the shrubbery that fringed her dorm block, the large volume of vodka running through her veins meaning she wouldn’t feel the myriad of scratches the rose bushes were giving her until tomorrow. Despite that, her eyes were full of tears.

Neither of them had been paying much attention as they’d crashed into her flat, both of them drunk and distracted by each other. It had taken ten minutes for Eliza to realise with horror that they’d left the door open and Poppy was nowhere to be found.

Alex was staggering just a little as he sprinted into view, having been frantically searching on the green.

“Anything?” he panted.

Eliza shook her head miserably, burrowing deeper into the coat, which was Alex’s. She hadn’t expected him to get so worked up over a cat he’d insisted repeatedly he didn’t even like. She’d expected to have been forced to drag him out of the bed but he’d shot up the second they’d realised, as worried as she was, and had been looking for nearly forty minutes now.

“Ah fuck,” he groaned, breathing heavily, his eyes more than a little frantic, “What on earth are we going to do? It’s freezing out, its pitch black, how the hell are we going to find her?”

Eliza couldn’t answer, she felt the fearful tears choking her and she was in no state to hold them back. Even over the howl of the wind, Alex heard her sniffling and realised his words weren’t helping in the slightest.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he said soothingly, reaching out to pull her against him, “I’m sorry, that was stupid. Of course we’ll find her. I’m drunk, what the fuck do I know?”

Eliza nodded into his shoulder, her shoulders shaking not just with the cold. How could they have been so stupid, she thought mournfully, was one night’s worth of shots enough to make them completely lose their minds? They’d worked so hard to save her and now they’d gone and lost her in the most idiotic way possible.

“Come on, chin up, she won’t have gone far,” Alex insisted, his voice filling back up with his usual façade of confidence that he only dropped for her, “Come on, we’ll go look by the moat, she’s probably after the fishes.”

“What if we never find her?” Eliza mumbled, well aware she was sounding like a small, scared child but unable to stop.

“Aw, don’t say that. Why would she ever go far from you? Why would anyone ever go far from you? I sure can’t!”

That was enough for a small, watery smile as they set off towards the moat.

Sure enough, Alex proved that even half a bottle of tequila down, he was still a genius. Poppy was huddled at the water’s edge, looking like someone who had taken a risk and was massively regretting it. She jumped up and bounded over to Eliza the instant she saw them approach.

Eliza gasped with delight, scooping the little cat up and hugging her like she wasn’t ever going to let her go. Alex gave a triumphant whoop, scratching behind her little brown ears.

“See? What did I tell you,” he grinned, “All’s right with the world again; our girl’s back.”

Now she was reunited with her cat, Eliza could raise her eyebrows at him in mock surprise, “I thought you didn’t like her?”

Alex looked a little bashful, “You know I’m full of shit, Eliza.”

She giggled happily and took a step closer, standing on her tiptoes so she could kiss him deeply. His face was freezing, his nose bright red in the cold.

“Thanks,” she whispered, truly meaning it.

He shrugged modestly though he was obviously pleased.

As they walked quickly back to her dorm, anxious to get out of the cold, Alex gave a short, dry laugh.

“If this is anything to go by, we’re going to be terrible parents,” he commented, putting his arm around her waist.

Eliza blinked, wondering if he’d actually said what she thought he’d said. Nope, he’d definitely used future tense, no wriggle room, complete certainty.

Suddenly, she wanted to kiss him again.

 

Eliza was right; she usually was. It turned out to be a very good thing.

Alex still called Poppy ‘little shit’ but it became more of an affectionate term than an insult. Poppy could usually be found wound around his shoulders or purring in his lap as he worked, sparing one hand to pet her as the other one typed. She would chase the errand strings as Eliza knitted or sewed and cuddle up with her as she read in the sunlight. She would curl up in the hollows in the covers left after Alex and Eliza’s legs entwined around each other in the night, kneading away contentedly.

As it happened, Alexander and Eliza became parents much sooner than either of them would have thought but, thankfully, his prediction was incorrect, they were actually pretty good at it. Poppy made herself useful, helping their new apartment in the city feel a little more like home. She also seemed to feel that it was now her job to guard Eliza, settling on her growing belly on a night and blinking suspiciously, as if keeping watch, making her laugh. And once her humans had disappeared in a panic and returned two days later with another, much smaller, much louder human she didn’t abandon her duties. She’d sit with little Phillip, not even blinking when he grabbed her tail or pulled her ears, just nuzzling him affectionately. She managed to keep this up for all of the Hamilton children.

One day, nearly fifteen years later, Alexander was leaning in the doorway of the living room, coffee in hand, watching baby William, his youngest son, only having learned to crawl half a week ago but already racing around the house wreaking havoc at ground level. A very elderly, slightly greying Poppy was sleeping on the carpet in the sun until Will pounced, pulling her into an over eager hug that she bore with good grace. Alex smiled fondly.

“Definitely worth one missed essay,” he said to himself with a quiet laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> Come chat on tumblr, quantum-oddity :)


End file.
